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After renting this movie three or four times, I thought I might do better buying it. It is haunting in a way that most other Le Carre movies are not. It demands close attention from the viewer, because it crams a lot of plot, characters, and detail into approximately two hours. But if you are patient enough to deal with it all, you will be rewarded. Most of the story takes place in contemporary Kenya (though the actual filming was in South Africa), and the local scenes are heart-wrenching. The story is rich enough to include black, white, and various shades of gray -- much like the world we live in. The heroes include a milksoppish young diplomat (Fiennes) who falls in love with a dynamic, rather monomaniacal social activist (Weisz). It is her demise that forces him out of his botanical comfort zone and into a hopeless confrontation with Le Carre's inevitable villains, corporate capitalism and western civilization in general. I often have problems with Le Carre's ideological predictability, which is attenuated in his novels by their very complexity, but which, in the movies derived from those novels, often assumes comic book simplicity. Such is not the case, or at least is less the case, in this movie. Fine performances from all actors and actresses, a literate and well-paced, if somewhat densely-packed script, and scenes you will have trouble forgetting. The violence is almost completely off-camera, the sex is mild by today's standards, and for those who incline toward "Fast and Furious" plot devices, there is even a car chase. Regrettably, no ninjas, zombies, comic book characters, or animated pseudo-Broadway gay songbird extravaganzas.

John Le Carré was widely criticized for the book that this film is based on. However, the critics didn't get it. This film, while it departs in the book in some ways, conveys the same message that Le Carré was trying to get across in the book, which is that life is cheap and that we in the West who place an unbelievable value on our own lives are living in an unsustainable dream world. I love the setting in Kenya, which is probably the first Third World country to be subjected to Western medicine, resulting in its transformation in two generations from a beautiful land to an overpopulated and underfed basket case. My main quibble with this film is that the cinematographer was not up to capturing the drama of desolate expanses of that part of the world. Watch "Lawrence of Arabia" and you will see what I mean.

The more I watch this movie, the more I realize that it isa genuine masterpiece. Every actor in the cast performson the highest level of which he or she is capable. And, ifI am right, that is no small or unimportant claim. Further,the director Fernando Meirelles, uses a strange but utterlybrilliant directorial method. The movie is based on the novelby Jean le Carre; and when you catch on to the devices of thedirector you realize that he has deepened the novel and itsmasterful and contemporary plot. Also, I love the music thatsets the action; and the figures of African life intermixed withthe plot. After multiple, multiple viewings, I'd now rate thismovie as one of the finest that ever has been made. Checkit out yourself. But do NOT believe that one or even twoviewings will be enough to reach its depths.... Or to enjoy itto the full.Sincerely, Dr. Frank Braio

This is my second look at this film, and after 13 years it seems more relevant than before. We start the film with the murder of Tessa, played by The film then proceeds back into her life, and how she met her husband Justin, played by Ralph Fiennes. This is the manner in which John Le caree, the best spy writer, usually marshall’s his books.

We see how the problem Tessa discovered and what she reported and to who . Then in flashback we start to realize the mass of delusion and danger the people involved were. How did this occur, why did this occur is the path Justin takes to solve the murder of his wife. This is a wide sweeping look at the pharmaceutical wo4ld and how they play. No one is immune to danger, and , it is not until the final moments that we feel justice is being served, and on a bed of roses, at that.

A first rate film, superbly acted, script well done and the storyline once difficult to believe is now seems almost commonplace.

This movie absolutely broke my heart. This isn't one to watch if you just want to be entertained or are hoping for a romantic or suspense plot. This is one to watch if you want a genuine look into the world of third world drug testing and developing. This is a movie to watch, if you want to have your conscience stirred, if you want to feel that incredible burden for the lesser privileged. It was a powerful movie, a heartbreaking story line. There is no redemptive ending, there isn't a miraculous hero that saves the day (well sort of I suppose). It is raw, honest, captivating and ultimately moved me in such a way that I was completely burdened for these countries that are in dire need, and countries like America, Canada, England...have exploited. It absolutely shook me out of my first world idealism. watch it.